Russia has become the first country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine after successful clinical trials. President Vladimir Putin’s daughter was part of those that participated in the trials.
The move by Russia has however been questioned as the vaccine has not yet passed Phase 3 of clinical trials which is requires thousands of volunteers and could last for a year.
Putin was speaking at a government meeting and assured the country that the vaccine breakthrough would provide a lasting solution to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Putin said his daughter had a temperature of 38 degrees before taking the vaccine but dropped to 37 degrees after taking the vaccine. He temperature rose again after taking the second shot.
“She’s feeling well and has a high number of antibodies,” Putin added. He didn’t specify which of his two daughters received the vaccine.
The Health Minister says the vaccine is expected to provide immunity to coronavirus for two years.
The government will administer health professionals first before the program is rolled to the rest of the population.
Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said that the vaccination of doctors could start as early as this month.
Large-scale production of the vaccine will start in September, and mass vaccination may begin as early as October, government officials said.
“The real concern is we know nothing about phase one studies how many people, we know nothing about phase two studies, how many people. It’s very hard to take this seriously unless they’ve used it in massive numbers of people and actually have the data.”said Barry Bloom, a public health professor at Harvard University.
Read More: Bill Gates funded Covid-19 vaccine trial begins in South Africa
There are doubts that Russia completed Phase 3 of the trials and data is not available.
Last week the WHO poured cold water on the ‘breakthrough’ by Russia as they said they had seen “nothing official”, and that pharmaceutical products must “undergo all the different trials and tests before being licensed for deployment to the population.
Professor Alexander Gintsburg, head of the Gamaleya institute that is involvement in the development of the vaccine raised eyebrows in May when he revealed that himself and others tried the vaccine on themselves.
Human studies started on June 17 among 76 volunteers. Half were injected with a vaccine in liquid form and the other half with a vaccine that came as soluble powder. Around half of the volunteers came from the military and there are huge concerns that the volunteers could have been forced.
Putin insists the vaccine has gone under necessary tests.